Monday, July 14, 2014

Chicken Treat Chart The Best Treats For Backyard Chickens

CHICKEN TREATSThis
is a list of everything you can feed a chicken. However, everybody's
chickens have their own tiny brains full of likes and dislikes, so while
one person's chickens may come running for grapes or watermelon,
another person's chickens may turn up their pointy little beaks at it.
Anything on this list is worth a try.At the bottom of the page are things you should avoid feeding your chickens.

Treat

Type

General Opinions

Apples

Raw and applesauce

Apple seeds contain cyanide, but not in sufficient quantities to kill.

Asparagus

Raw or cooked

Okay to feed, but not a favorite.

Bananas

Without the peel

High in potassium, a good treat.

Beans

Well-cooked only, never dry

Also, greenbeans.

Beets

Greens also.

.

Berries

All kinds

A treat, especially strawberries.

Breads

All kinds - good use for stale bread or rolls

Feed starches in moderation.

Broccoli & Cauliflower

.

Tuck into a suet cage and they will pick at it all day.

Cabbage & Brussels Sprouts

Whole head -

Hang a whole cabbage from their coop ceiling in winter so they have something to play with and greens to eat.

Carrots

Raw and cooked

They like carrot foliage too.

Catfood * (see bottom of page)

Wet and dry

Feed in strict moderation, perhaps only during moulting * (see bottom of page)

Cereal

Cheerios, etc.

Avoid highly sugared cereal such as Cocopuffs, etc.

Cheese

Including cottage cheese

Feed in moderation, fatty but a good source of protein and calcium

Cooked Chicken

.

They may like it and it won’t kill them, but it just seems so….. ummm………… wrong.

Scratch is a treat for cold weather, not a complete feed. Toss it on the ground and let them scratch for it for something to do.

Sprouts

Wheat and oat sprouts are great!

Good for greens in mid-winter.

Summer Squash

Yellow squash and zucchini

Yellow squash not a huge favorite, but okay to feed.

Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds with the shell still on is fine to feed, as well as with the shell off.

A good treat, helps hens lay eggs and grow healthy feathers.

Tomatos

Raw and cooked.

Turnips

Cooked.

Not a huge favorite

Watermelon

Served cold, it can keep chickens cool and hydrated during hot summers.

Seeds and flesh are both okay to feed.

Yogurt

Plain or flavored

A big favorite and good for their digestive systems. Plain is better.

The most favorite chicken treat of all - mealworms! Note the lightning speed of the chicken lunging for them.Yogurt's a favorite, and very good for their intestinal health

Here are two photos from Rooster-Red of his chickens enjoying their yogurt!Rooster-Red recommends standing back from your chickens when feeding yogurt, because the stuff flies EVERYwhere.

This is a mix of good quality birdseed, raw oatmeal and scratch. I only feed this on cold mornings, and I scatter it sparingly in their run so they have something to scratch for and occupy their treat-obsessed minds.

Here's a bowl of warm oatmeal, girls!Warm oatmeal's even better after a big snowstorm Don’t feed the following thingsto your chickens:(I'm sure people have experienced exceptions to this list,but if we want to raise our birds the best way possible, "better safe than sorry".)

Here’s why:

Raw green potato peels

Toxic substance called Solanine.

Anything real salty

Can cause salt poisoning in small bodies such as chickens.

Citrus

.

Dried or undercooked Beans

Raw, or dry beans, contain a poison called hemaglutin which is toxic to birds.

Avocado Skin and Pit

Skin and pit have low levels of toxicity.

Raw eggs

You don’t want to introduce your chickens to the tastiness of eggs which may be waiting to be collected in the nestboxes.

Candy, Chocolate, Sugar

Their teeth will rot… No, it’s just bad for their systems, and chocolate can be poisonous to most pets.

A quote from Nifty-Chicken,the Administrator of BYC:

"I gave up on my birds knowing what was best for them when I caught them all eating a block of Styrofoam pellets."

Regarding toxicity,
the following is copied from a post by DLhunicorn on May 14, 2007 in a
thread titled "Potato Peels". (Thank you DLhunicorn for your
tremendously helpful and knowledgeable contributions to BYC!)"Do not count on your chickens "knowing" what is bad for them...also do not count on these "toxic" plants immediately being identifiable by finding a dead bird the next morning...usually
it is a slow process damaging organs , inhibiting the ability of your
bird to utilize the nutrients in their feed, etc.http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html
Toxic Plants

here are some of my collected articles on nutrition :http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.c … 1157992073* Regarding feeding CAT FOOD to chickens,the
following is from DLHunicorn in response to the listing of cat food in
this Treats Chart: (A word to the wise, and thank you, DLHunicorn)"You
all know how I feel on cat food and I have posted the links and
reasoning behind my objections several times ...it can potentially be
detrimental to your birds health and even deadly in the right
circumstances and for this reason I feel it should be left off the chart
(as when you put it on it is as if you are condoning its use) I will
repost here one of the sources for my objection:

..."While it is nutritionally essential, methionine excesses are far
more toxic to poultry than similar excesses of tryptophan, lysine, and
threonine (National Research Council, 1994). Force feeding methionine to
excess can result in death to chicks (National Research Council, 1994). A
dosage of 2 g / mature cat / day (20 to 30 g / kg dry diet) for 20 days
induces anorexia, ataxia, cyanosis, methemoglobinemia and Heinz body
formation resulting in hemolytic anemia (Maede, 1985). The original post was from http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treat-chart-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens.

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All Things Chicken ( & Ducks )

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